The Hippopotamus by Flanders & Swann

Album: At The Drop Of A Hat (1960)

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Songfacts®:

Although Flanders & Swann wrote numerous songs together and toured the world with their revues At The Drop Of A Hat and At The Drop Of Another Hat, if there is one song for which they will be remembered it is "The Hippopotamus Song." In his memoirs Swann's Way, the then surviving member of the duo explained how it came about. The song was started by Flanders, he said, adding "That rather annoyed me because I liked to write all the music, but every so often he had a good tune." The chorus came first, which begins with the well-known "Mud, mud, glorious mud!" This was based on "Beer, beer, glorious beer!" from an old time musical song by Steve Leggett and Will Godwin.

They played the chorus to Ian Wallace, an entertainer and opera singer who had asked them if they could write something for him, "So we purpose-wrote the verse which I put to music." The song was an instant success, and was published immediately by Chappell Music, which paved the way for "The Warthog," "The Whale" and "The Rhinoceros."

"The Hippopotamus Song" also started them off on the song publishing route. The chorus would eventually be translated into twenty different languages, including two versions in Latin! They also wrote a "second edition of it."
There have been several published editions of the song including an illustrated edition for children, and a 1970 edition by Chappell arranged for two part chorus by Carl Miller which sold for 1s6d (7½p).
"The Hippopotamus Song" is one of those compositions that lends itself readily to parody. September 2007 saw the beginning of its use in a TV advertising campaign for Walker's Crisps featuring the TV presenter and former England soccer captain Gary Lineker in which the chorus:

"Mud, mud, glorious mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood"

was replaced by

"Mud, mud, marvellous mud, nothing quite like it for growing a spud"

Probably Lineker didn't think it was so marvelous, because at the end of the refrain he was thrown head first into a muddy potato field. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 3

Comments: 1

Mark from Lancaster, OhThey were just marvelous: I grew up with At The Drop Of A Hat in the 1950's.

Michael Flanders suffered from polio and performed in a wheelchair. He was the lecher of the pair; Swann was always cast as an innocent.

Thanks for listing this. Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood...

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